Moron or murderer tweet: Has Kejriwal gone too far?

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday courted even more controversy after he retweeted a contentious tweet by musician Vishal Dadlani that was aimed at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Kejriwal retweeted music director Vishal Dadlani's tweet last night which read, "Stuck between a moron and a murderer....what now, India!?" Dadlani had made the comment after an interview of Rahul Gandhi was aired by the Times Now television channel.

Dadlani did't stop there either. Faced with the fury of a consolidated Internet army which rushed to the defence of the perceived slight on BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he only kept tweeting along the same lines.

You know what's hilarious!? Again, I didn't name anyone in that tweet. You guys already knew who was which. Well done! You're right, too!

The music director has been making controversial remarks in the past as well and it would have most probably gone down as yet another Twitter outburst, if not for the retweet by Kejriwal. The BJP criticised him sharply, saying that as a chief minister he should be "doubly conscious" of what he endorses.

Screenshot of Arvind Kejriwal's Twitter timeline.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharamam, said, "It doesn't auger well at all. A chief minister even if he endorses or doesn't endorse the retweet itself, he has allowed a certain language which is not deserving of either a chief minister or even a Member of Parliament. It is not doing the public discourse any favour. Being a chief minister he should now be doubly conscious of what he endorses, if he doesn't, he does not any business to retweet it and start this kind of language in the social media."

She also said that Kejriwal should be conscious of what he is doing.

"If comments are on public personalities, one occupying the position of chief minister of Gujarat and the other Member of Parliament. It may be the independent view of a music director, but the chief minister (Kejriwal) should have been conscious," she said.

Congress for its part has chosen to take the high ground and not engage with the issue at all.

"Its a vibrant democracy. But if you start answering every tweet, then that's the end of it," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, according to a report in the Times of India.

Kejriwal for his part has refused to take back his endorsement of the tweet. But given his propensity to always choose the more controversial path, this should come as no surprise.

In his short time as Chief Minister he has already made the unprecedented move of holding a dharna against his own police force, and has stood by the actions of his Law Minister Somnath Bharti who led a midnight raid into a house in Khirki extension.

If his goal is to make an impression through controversy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal is certainly on the right path.